Abstract

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Oliver (1986) postulated that when continental margins in zones of convergence are buried beneath thrust sheets, fluids expelled from the margin sediments go to the foreland basin and the continental interior. It might be stated that these fluids play key role in different phenomena. That concerns faulting, migration of hydrocarbons, and mineral transportation etc. The hypothesis has been presented based on the North American case, relating both oil and gas fields and their occurrences as well as e.g., lead-zinc deposits to the tectonic belts there (as the Appalachians). Furthermore the presentation concerns the Carpathian Mountains chain in Europe, a fragment of the orogenic belt that cuts a large part of the continent, and oil and gas fields there,present in the Carpathians and the Carpathian Foreland. Hydrocarbons are very common and widespread in sedimentary rocks in the different Carpathian units and at different scale (macro- and microscopic) and point to mobility and circulation of fluids